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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1998 Week 7 Hansard (22 September) . . Page.. 2021 ..

MR MOORE (continuing):

Ministers also agreed that our expert advisory group will be asked to consider ways in which national coordination of efforts to improve health care safety and quality can best be achieved within current organisational and financial frameworks. The group will report to the Australian Health Ministers Advisory Council, or AHMAC, which members would know is the council of senior officials supporting Ministers, in March 1999 with their recommendations for a national coordination mechanism, a national action plan and a budget for the next three years.

Mr Speaker, given members' concerns for mental health issues, I know you will be interested to learn that at this meeting we also agreed that the priority areas for the next stage of the national mental health strategy were promotion and prevention, partnerships in service reform and delivery, and quality and effectiveness. We endorsed the second national mental health plan as the framework for national mental health reform over the period 1 July 1998 to 30 June 2003 and agreed to its publication and release.

At this meeting Ministers also agreed to the establishment of a National Health Information Management Advisory Council which will advise us on options to promote more effective information management within the health sector. We will evaluate the contribution of the council within two years.

In my letter to all members I stated that the meeting would discuss the national registration of medical practitioners in disaster situations and that this would involve my agreeing to amend ACT legislation to ensure that there are explicit provisions for exempting practitioners responding to emergencies, including declared disasters, from the need for registration. Mr Speaker, I wish to advise members that I will be progressing this issue. I am sure that members will agree that this is a necessary reform to the ACT legislation. Members will also recall that I mentioned the national public health partnerships issue and, as expected, Ministers endorsed the legislation reform working group's work program.

With regard to the item on occupational regulation of Chinese medicine practitioners, I was keen to ensure that this be extended to all herbal practitioners who prescribe or dispense herbs that are restricted under drugs and poisons legislation. The meeting decided to establish a working group to facilitate consultation and to make recommendations to Health Ministers, and also that a set of minimum standards for conduct and safety of alternative health practitioners be developed and reported to Ministers in 1999. New South Wales will be circulating a discussion paper on this issue.

The uniform national framework for control of radiation was another issue that involved legislation, and one that I raised in my letter to members. At this meeting Ministers noted the template for uniform national regulatory controls for radiation protection and are now aiming to progress uniformity in this area. Members may know that the Commonwealth has prepared legislation consistent with the template and has introduced it into the Federal Parliament.

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